via Hill's eBay account

Henry Hill with Ray Liotta

Henry Hill was best known by Ray Liotta's face. An East New York native famously mentored by the Lucchese crime family, Hill was the Lufthansa-heisting mobster whose 1986 memoir, the Nicholas-Pileggi-shaped Wiseguy, served as the inspiration for Martin Scorsese's modern classic Goodfellas. As TMZ reported last night, Hill died yesterday in Los Angeles at the age of 69.

Hill's life consisted of well-documented involvements with the dirty businesses of narcotics, extortion, robbery, and one major point-shaving college-basketball scandal. Eventually he became an FBI informant and entered the Witness Protection Program until he was expelled for, in his words, "being a Goodfella." He then lived openly under his real name, relocating to Topanga County, becoming a recurring guest on Howard Stern, and hawking his paintings through an eBay store. In 2007, the enterprising ex-con opened a mob-themed restaurant in West Haven, Connecticut called Wiseguys. (An attic fire mysteriously broke out shortly after the establishment opened.)

That same year, the Voice spoke with the self-described "bullshit artist" about spaghetti sauce, his artistic muse ("whatever goes through my sick, fuckin' mind"), his Witness Protection Program dismissal, and "learning to fuck again" after his late-life circumcision. Reprinted below is an edited version of Michael Clancy's Runnin' Scared dialogue with the legendary gangster.

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Altagracia Mayi, in 2002

On March 28, 1991, Manuel Mayi was beaten to death by a mob in Corona, Queens.

At the time, as many as 10 white individuals chased the 18 year-old Dominican for 16 blocks. They then hit him with baseball bats, fatally cracking his skull. Cops made three arrests. The District Attorney tried one individual, who was not convicted.

Altagracia Mayi, his mother, still wants answers: "I will never tire of seeking justice," she told El Diario.

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Roy Huntley died at the hands of a gang of thugs during a grisly robbery-turned-slaying that took place on Sept. 28, 2008.

Michael Smith, Anthony Smith, and Melvin Peters roughed up the 24-year-old husband and father of two in 2050 Eighth Avenue, stealing his watch and other small property before dragging him outside, where Anthony then shot him in the head. Two other men are said to be involved in the crime.

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Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who plans on running for mayor in 2013, released a report over the weekend on child deaths in the City -- calling on the Administration for Children's Services to implement a more comprehensive system for assessing cases of abuse and neglect.

De Blasio argued that there are some alarming trends in the child deaths that have occurred in the child welfare system, and that ACS can do more to address these problems systematically. The public advocate's report, based on a review of 75 child fatality reports released between January and December 2011, got some press over the weekend -- which gave the City a chance to fire back at de Blasio. In this New York Times piece published on Saturday, officials from A.C.S criticized the report, calling it "disingenuous and misleading."

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Cops want to find the two scumbags who roughed up two Queens residents in several recent robberies.

On Jan. 12, one of the suspected perps (pictured here) followed a 58-year-old man into an elevator at 71-57 161st Street. Cops say he whacked the victim on the head and stole his money.

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Cops are looking for the two scumbags who beat a man into a coma on Sunday.

Around 3:30 a.m., two men roughed up a 23-year-old man during an altercation outside Mamajuana Cafe, located at 247 Dyckman Street, and eventually knocked him unconscious, police say. The victim has been hospitalized and has not recovered from the injuries.

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via

Things making Central Park slightly less pleasant: Cops are looking for 23-year-old Firdaus Nazarov, a pedicab driver who, along with three others, allegedly attacked two fellow pedicab drivers in the park near Central Park South at 10 p.m. on June 4 to "settle a preexisting beef." One of the victims, brothers from Kazakhstan who live in Brooklyn, suffered a broken nose and a fractured eye socket that could leave him blind. He was knocked unconscious and doesn't remember the attack. One of the attackers, Furkat Abidov, was caught in Chinatown and remains in jail charged with gang assault. Cops are still looking for Nazarov and two other men. On the wanted poster are the ominous words, "Caution, perpetrator may be a kick boxer." If you've seen Nazarov, call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 800-577-TIPS. [DNA Info]

Jason Fordell

On his late-night commute home from the East Village, where he sells leather accessories in a club, Jason Fordell was assaulted on a 4 train in the Bronx; he says it was a hate crime. The self-described "small, little white kid with long hair" says a group of four young black men were harassing him. "People started saying stupid little comments -- cracker this, white boy this, faggot this," Fordell said. "I told them the only reason they were saying this is there was four of them and one of me."

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NYPD boxer Jose Ocasio

​The NYPD arrested two of their own Monday for allegedly kicking and punching a Bronx teen last February 18 after issuing him a summons on East 181st Street, across the street from the 46th Precinct house. Officers Joseph Murphy, 26, and Jose Ocasio, 28, were charged with assault, official misconduct, and harassment, and the NYPD also suspended them.

The NYPD's announcement was terse, but the Voice has learned that there is a cop in the 46th Precinct named Jose Ocasio who is a member of the Fighting Finest, the NYPD's boxing team, which is set to travel to Budapest this fall. Team officials couldn't be reached for comment on whether this is the same cop.
WPIX/11 says the 17-year-old victim was beaten and kicked and suffered bruises and cuts to his head. So basically, the two cops allegedly stomped him.

Six New York City teenagers were charged on Thursday with murder as a hate crime for the beating of 18-year-old Anthony Collao in Queens. Back in March, the Long Island teen was killed at a Woodhaven birthday party when seven reported gang members crashed the door, refusing to pay the cover charge, and proceeded to trash the place, writing "homophobic remarks," according to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, on the walls in red marker and eventually setting their sights on Collao, who was beaten and stomped to death. The 21-count indictment yesterday includes upgraded charges based on new witness accounts, which take the previous charges of manslaughter and assault up to second-degree murder as a hate crime. The teenage defendants could do 25 to life if found guilty. [CBS]